September 18, 2000
Texans defend right to amend Cooperative Program
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Cooperation, trust and autonomy always have been the essential elements in the Cooperative Program, Texas Baptist leaders said in the wake of criticism over their proposed budget changes.
___The Baptist General Convention of Texas Administrative Committee voted Sept. 13 to recommend redirection of about $5 million from eight SBC institutions--the six seminaries, the Executive Committee and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission--to meet what they called "priority needs" in Texas.
___Southern Baptist leaders--including the presidents of the six seminaries and the president of the Executive Committee-–said such an action effectively ends the Cooperative Program. The BGCT does not have the right to redefine its participation in the Cooperative Program unilaterally, they asserted.
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___That opinion was countered by Cecil Ray, a former North Carolina Baptist convention executive director who is considered by many to be the SBC's leading expert on the Cooperative Program.
___"From the beginning, participation in the Cooperative Program has been a strictly voluntary tie between the state conventions and the SBC, a handshake kind of deal," said Ray, who now lives in Georgetown. "Even before the Cooperative Program was established in 1925, it was stated that the sharing of funds through a cooperative effort was for the mutual benefit of both parties and that either had a right to terminate it at any time. It was strictly voluntary," he added.
___Southern Baptists formally established the Cooperative Program in 1925 as a means of providing orderly and systematic support of missions work.
___Before that, for the first 80 years of its history, the SBC "limped along with the society style of financing--everybody for himself," Ray said. Every agency did its own fund-raising, resulting in an inefficient and insufficient system.
___By 1919, Southern Baptist finances were in "total financial disarray," Ray explained. "Institution and agency leaders were trapped in an exhausting cycle of borrowing to maintain operations and then trying to pay the ever-growing debts. Hard-pressed churches had begun to revolt under the flood of appeals for denominational needs."
___A five-year pledge campaign was launched, called the $75 Million Campaign. It resulted in $92 million in pledges, but because of financial reverses in the national economy, raised only $58.5 million.
___Some called it a failure, Ray noted, but its success was in demonstrating to Southern Baptists the power of cooperation.
___Leaders of that day were concerned that the autonomy of every echelon of Baptist life be protected, said Leon McBeth, professor of church history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. To address this, leaders adopted a statement in 1928 spelling out the relationship between the churches, the states and the SBC.
___"That statement says that all Baptist bodies are independent and autonomous, but that the state conventions and the SBC agree to work together for common goals," he explained.
___The 1928 SBC Annual records that messengers adopted a "statement of principles" concerning the relationship of the SBC to other Baptist bodies.
___It notes the Baptist principle that a "church is a free and voluntary association of believers ... and it follows that each church is autonomous or self-determining in all matters pertaining to its own life and activities. It is not subject to any other church or organization of any kind whatsoever, but only to Christ and his authority."
___McBeth said history supports the idea that the relationship between state conventions and the SBC are strictly voluntary "cooperative arrangements which can be changed at any time by either body. Not just the states; the SBC can change the arrangement if they want to."
___In the early 1930s, one of the state conventions attempted to withhold money from the SBC, McBeth noted, "but it was established that when a state convention adopted a budget, it was a contract, and they could not arbitrarily withhold funds they had collected because those funds had been given by the churches with the understanding that it would be used in certain ways."
___However, that is a year-to-year agreement, he added.
___"Texas does not have the right to change the budget in the middle of the year, but they can in any new year. They have the right to indicate they are no longer content with the arrangement and want to change it. Either side can do that."
___McBeth and Ray agree that the Cooperative Program is based on trust between Baptist bodies of equal stature and standing.
___"When the trust breaks down, then the Cooperative Program breaks down," McBeth said.
___Ray added that for the three-quarters of a century since it was founded, the Cooperative Program has been a "rope of sand," an informal agreement between the state conventions and the national body which has worked well in providing funds from the churches through the state conventions and to the national organization.
___"When it started, all the states were asked was to do was to check with the churches and then to give an estimate of how much would be sent to the SBC," said Alan Lefever, director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection.
___There are remarkably few documents spelling out how the giving plan works, Ray added.
___In past years, most of the state conventions have adopted budgets that divide the total Cooperative Program gifts between the state conventions and the national body on a percentage basis.
___For instance, in 1999, Texas received total Cooperative Program gifts of $73 million. It retained 64 percent ($47 million) while sending 36 percent ($26 million) to support worldwide Baptist causes, including the SBC.
___State conventions have regularly adjusted the percentage divisions. The Texas split has alternated from a low of 75-25 in the Depression to nearly 50-50 at times.
___"State conventions have always had the right to adjust the percentages, depending on the needs in the state and the economic times," Lefever said.
___Ray, who at one time headed the Texas Baptist stewardship department, said an organizing principle always has been that the Cooperative Program "is strictly voluntary and can be changed by either party at any time without the other's consent.
___"It was so harmonious for 70 years that we tended to forget that voluntary aspect of it," he said. "I can understand why the SBC leaders are reacting like they are. It is their lifeline, but the principle has always been that it is strictly voluntary.
___"In places where the state conventions are in accord with the direction of the SBC, this is not an issue. But in states like ours and others which are not pleased what the SBC leadership is doing, this kind of adjusting will have to take place.
___"After so many years of harmony, no one exercised their right to change the agreement." But now, he said, the times have changed.
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